Is an Airport Like any Other Mall? Identification of Passengers’ Activities Patterns in an International Airport

Abstract

With the development and the competition between airports, they share more and more similarities with malls with the presence of international brands, large commercial spaces, many bars and restaurants, but also many services intended to complete or improve passengers’ experience. In a typical mall, consumers engage in many activities above and beyond shopping (they can socialize, pass time and so on). But research about passengers in airport generally focuses only on shopping and excludes the other activities. The aim of this research is to investigate the similarities and differences between airports and malls, in terms of activities’ patterns as well as passengers’ profiles. Our data is derived from a survey administrated in an international mid-size airport during summer 2017. First, using principal component analysis, we identified few differences, but many common points between airports and malls. Secondly, based on passengers’ activities and a hierarchical clustering method, we identified 4 clusters of passengers. Our results can have direct implications for airport management, to refine segmenting and targeting, and also to improve passengers’ overall airport experience.